Cold Barrel Zero
by galleywinter
Summary: Three and a half years after the Reaper War, life has slowly begun to return to normal. But then Kaidan discovers the remnants of Cerberus have risen from the ashes and that they're coming after Shepard. Kaidan has absolutely no intention of letting that happen. Written for the Spring/Summer 2014 Mass Effect Big Bang.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Notes: This story was written for the Mass Effect Flash Bang 2014. It wouldn't have been possible without a handful of people, including my marvelous betas Eleneripenneth, Galtori, and Afirethatwillneverburn, my test readers Edenprimes, Ladyamesindy, and Bioticbooty, and my wonderful husband who stepped up to the plate when I needed to buckle down and work, and who helped me through plot holes and breakdowns.

This is Bioware's sandbox; I'm just playing in it.

And can I just add - it's really _really_ good to be back.

* * *

_Cold Barrel Zero – The calibration of a SWAT sniper rifle so that the first (cold) shot will hit a target at 100 yards. Subsequent rounds will diverge due to barrel heating.  
__

The Presidium park was incredible this time of the year; the weather was the usual 73 degrees Fahrenheit, but what Kaidan loved most was that some of the most gorgeous flowers and trees from Earth currently bloomed and flourished in the section of the park now called Amanda Shepard Memorial Plaza.

Kaidan rounded the path that curved gracefully around the prominent low stone wall with the name of the park affixed in large brass letters. He never paid it much mind, and didn't today, but true to form, Amanda did. His wife sighed as they jogged past it, a quiet sound that could have been mistaken for a runner's breath had he known her any less well than he did.

Normally, he wouldn't have said anything, but today felt different. He cut her a glance out of the corner of his eye, his mouth twitching with the effort not to grin, and responded with a brisk "Aye, aye, ma'am" as they left the wall behind them.

A second sidelong glance let him catch her wide-eyed expression of surprise and confusion, and then she actually laughed as comprehension dawned, a rich, warm sound Kaidan doubted he would ever stop cherishing. "If they're going to insist I'm dead, they could have at least gotten the name right," she managed around the dying edge of a snicker.

"Intelligence must have dropped the ball, ma'am." He ran his tongue over his teeth, his cheeks aching from suppressing the smile he felt tugging at his mouth. "Either that or it's a completely passive aggressive reminder from your mother that she still hasn't forgiven you for eloping."

"So if I understand you right, Marine," she grinned, "you're saying the Director of Naval Intelligence is either wholly incompetent or completely kowtowed by his wife? I'll be sure to tell the old man you think so little of him next time he calls," she teased, her eyes twinkling.

"If he were actually doing his job with any degree of competence, he already would have known," Kaidan teased back with a lopsided grin and a wink.

"Maybe he does. That would explain why he's always complaining about the way you sear your steaks."

Kaidan scoffed. "That's not proof of good intelligence work. That's proof of a poor palate."

She didn't say anything in response, but a smile bloomed across her face that she only barely tried to hide by biting down on her lower lip. "No comment!" she tossed over her shoulder as she pulled ahead of him. He chuckled after her, letting her go on, appreciating the view of her six. His legs were a good deal longer than hers; he could catch her if he really wanted to, but he knew she always needed to get in at least a mile a day where it was just her and nothing more than the slap of her own feet punctuating her thoughts.

In truth, a little solitary time probably wouldn't have hurt him at the moment, either. It had been hard to catch a moment to breathe lately, much less to try to get his own thoughts into the neatly compartmentalized order he preferred.

In the immediate wake of the Reaper War, there had been peace - stunned survivors across the galaxy had banded together and helped each other pick up the shattered pieces and sew the tattered remnants together again. It had been almost idyllic.

And then the gratitude and relief that all of civilization had actually _survived_ had worn off, and the aches and the pains of trying to rebuild had taken over the feelings of general goodwill and galactic brotherhood. 2188 had actually been a particularly rough year, with fringe elements on Earth being among some of the most insidious. While the Alliance had perhaps been handling things a little imperfectly, they'd certainly been doing the best they could at the time with the resources available. But some of the rebuilding groups had levered what might have only been mild discontent if it had been left alone into something larger, something cancerous. There had very nearly been a revolt in the streets, and a couple of particularly pissed-off dissidents had even attacked the Alliance's Vancouver headquarters. Three good Marines had died before a sniper and a couple of his own biotic spec ops people had dealt with the problem.

After that had come reports of the Blood Pack and the Blue Suns and Eclipse running roughshod over the Terminus again. Like some kind of diseased flower spreading infectious spores, the old hatreds had bloomed across the galaxy.

Slowly, the galaxy had returned to its pre-Reaper status quo. Turf wars over red sand territory, illegal arms manufacture and distributorship, fringe "scientific" groups running illegal alien experimentation, the occasional assassination attempt against various members of the Council - and those were happening more often now that the Council had morphed itself into a true galactic governing body and had expanded exponentially to suit its new, more fitting role - anything and everything a depraved mind could conjure up, every sort of horrible atrocity that had ever been committed... It was all happening all over again as if the brush with complete galactic annihilation hadn't taught anyone anything.

They'd known the peace couldn't last indefinitely, but Kaidan had foolishly hoped that his children would at least have been school-aged before it had crumbled around them as if it had been made of nothing more complex and substantial than pixie dust instead of having been built upon the immeasurable sacrifices of countless people. Instead, his oldest son hadn't had the luxury of seeing his first birthday before even the Alliance News Network reports were once again tinged with cynicism.

Half-lost in his thoughts, Kaidan continued following the gently curving runners' path through the park, enjoying the bone-deep familiarity of this portion of Shepard Memorial: here, the low paving stones that demarcated the boundaries of the path at the Shepard Memorial section's entrance and exit points gave way to a nearly impenetrable wall of chokecherry bushes as the path crossed under a thick canopy of Engelmann spruce, western red cedar, and silver pine. It wasn't BC, but it sure as hell smelled like it and felt like it, and some days that was good enough.

Today was definitely one of those days.

It was centering, calming, to be back in his element this way, as fabricated as it might have been. And right now he needed that focal point. He had only been home with his family for two days; for the six weeks prior he'd been digging his way through the filth of the Terminus, hunting down an asari weapons smuggler who also had a penchant for trafficking refugee children from what she called the "lesser" races.

The things he had seen in those six weeks had made Kaidan's stomach churn.

Kaidan pulled in a deep breath, letting the bright sharpness of the pine and the spruce tingle in his nose and fill his lungs, letting the musky, earthy smell of the cedar wash over him in waves, all of it pulsating and thrumming and driving in time with the beat of his feet against the pavement. He followed the path at a slow jog, letting the comforting scents of home help wash him clean of all of the ugliness of his last assignment.

When he reached the point where the chokecherry began blending with American holly bushes, the berries already bursting forth in vibrant red clusters thanks to artificial cultivation and genetic modification, he could just see the thick wall of crepe myrtles bordering the edge of the blind curve in the path ahead. Beyond that, he knew, lay the rhododendron and honeysuckle, and he could already smell the hint of magnolia wafting on the filtered air.

He couldn't see Amanda yet, but as he approached the hairpin turn, Kaidan could hear another runner approaching from behind. The other person's feet syncopated in a rhythm against his own. He began to drift to the right, ensuring that there was room for them both on the path, giving an instinctual check over his shoulder as he did so.

He knew that man.

Irving Coetzer, a corporal stationed at Alliance Command, was coming up behind him. Coetzer was a good kid, exuberant to the point of almost being over-eager. Some of that eagerness, Kaidan had learned, had been because his parents had both been spec ops and he'd dreamed of that career path, too, from the time he'd been old enough to fire a toy gun. In the end, though, Coetzer himself hadn't quite made the grade, but he was still hungry.

Which was how he'd ended up on Kaidan's shortlist of potential sources a handful of months back. The kid, it turned out, knew how to make himself invisible in his position at Alliance Command, and he had picked up some unofficial tricks of the trade from his folks. A string of minor cases broken thanks to Coetzer' intel had landed him on the _very_ short list of sources Kaidan trusted implicitly.

Coetzer was a lot of things, but one thing he _wasn't_, Kaidan knew damn well, was a runner. So for him to be out on a quiet Friday afternoon in full running gear meant something was up.

As they rounded the turn, Coetzer pulled up next to him. There was no acknowledgment between them save a tight nod and a brisk "Sir" from Coetzer, but as Coetzer began to pass him, Kaidan felt his omni-tool vibrate subtly against his wrist. He kept his face carefully neutral, but his mind whirred as he watched Coetzer go. It could have been nothing more than coincidence – Amanda wondering where he was or calling to tell him that she was headed back to the apartment.

Or...not.

Checking now, however, would have been folly at best and dangerous at worst. Instead, he kept on the main path, following the crepe myrtle until he reached a fork. The left, marked by hibiscus and honeysuckle, looped back to the front of the park. The right, however, was lined by wood anemones and gradually wound its way to the grandiose magnolia tree, ringed by a bed of thick, full gardenia bushes, that was the centerpiece of Shepard Memorial. Kaidan took off down the right hand fork, knowing that Amanda, if she hadn't already left for home, would be waiting for him there so they could finish their run together.

As he rounded a final turn, Kaidan found his wife sitting on the grass near one of the benches scattered around the magnolia tree, feet kicked out in front of her and crossed at the ankles, face upturned and eyes closed as she leaned back on her arms. A small smile gently curved the corner of her mouth.

He took a moment to simply soak her in and enjoy the view. She looked damn near _radiant_. Especially when she opened her eyes and looked right at him, the little smile broadening across her face. Like she had expected him to be there.

Maybe she had. Warmth spread through his chest, bringing an echoing smile to his own face as he made his way over to her and dropped into a cooling stretch on the grass.

"Hey, you," Amanda murmured, giving him the once-over that never failed to nail him low in the gut.

"Hey yourself, beautiful. What's on your mind?"

"You talking about the stuff I can say in public or the stuff I can't?"

"Mmm. Let's stick to the fit-for-public consumption stuff, alright? Even Spectres don't get a pass if they use their authority to get out of a public indecency charge with C-Sec."

"Wouldn't want that to happen. Again." She grinned up at him. "So, where do you think Devin picked for dinner tonight?"

Kaidan barked out a short laugh and switched to stretching out his other hamstring. "Probably the loudest, flashiest place he could get a reservation. Probably somewhere expensive, and probably," he finished as they both stood and headed back to the path, "somewhere he had to namedrop one or all of us to get on the list. Come on, birthday girl," he said before pressing a quick kiss to her forehead. "Let's finish our run and get home. You have a birthday dinner to attend tonight."

Amanda smiled, a curve of her lips that somehow sent riots of heat pooling in very inconvenient places. "Is that the only thing waiting for me at home, Spectre Alenko?"

He groaned, low and quiet. "Oh, hell no."

He pointedly ignored his omni-tool as it buzzed again with a secondary notification.


	2. Chapter 2

They burst through the apartment door in a fit of giggles and a tangle of limbs. Amanda escaped his grasp, feinting right to the kitchen and then breaking hard left to the living room. Kaidan was hot on her heels, years spent on her six paying off now as he read every tell she probably didn't even realize her body was sending. She dove for the couch, most likely intending to use the coffee table as cover, but he was already there, vaulting over the back of the sofa to land - a little unsteadily - on the cushion.

Amanda took advantage of his struggle to regain his balance by darting back toward the stairs.

_Oh, hell no_. Kaidan formed the mnemonic before she'd gotten more than five feet.

Amanda shouted her surprise, her arms pinwheeling as she struggled in vain to keep her feet on the ground. "That's no _fair_," she laughed.

"All's fair in love and war, sweetheart." Kaidan crossed the space between them in two long strides and wrapped his hands around her waist. "And I have two words for you." He dropped his field and used the momentum to bring her against him, hard. The contact made him burn, but close was never enough. Not for them. "_Six. Weeks_."

"Six very long weeks," she agreed on a moan. Her fingers slipped up his neck and carded into the hair at his nape.

He leaned into the brush of her fingers and slipped his hands under the hem of her shirt, his palms dragging across the smoothness of her skin at the small of her back. "Hey, baby?" He bit the curve of her jaw, just under her ear.

"Mmmm... what?"

"I'm home." And he let his biotics flare.

Amanda gasped and arched against him, her eyes instantly darkening. Their lips met hot and hard and fast. Amanda's tongue slicked across his lower lip in a teasing brush before she fisted the front of his shirt in both hands. They parted only long enough to tear it over his head, and then they were on each other again, teeth scraping against lips and fingers digging into flesh.

Kaidan rocked hard into the cradle of her hips, seeking more of that delicious pressure, letting her feel exactly how badly he wanted her. Together, they stumbled toward the stairs. He coaxed her up a step and then turned her around, dropping to his knees behind her and roughly tugging her running shorts and her panties down her thighs as he went.

He grazed his thumb, live with biotic static, across her folds, and she shouted his name like a prayer, her hands clapping around the banister, her back arching and her hips tilting back toward him. He leaned forward and ran his tongue between her lips, splitting her open, reveling in the taste of salt and sweat and _her_. She gave a guttural "Oh, God" and pushed back into his mouth, and he lapped at her, driving his tongue into her, desperate for more.

He shoved his own shorts down his thighs and pulled himself free, grunting at how good even the pressure from his fingers felt. He lined her hips up and then stood and pushed into her, both of them groaning in pleasure as her tight, slick heat enveloped him. Bracing one hand against the banister for leverage, Kaidan withdrew and then slid back in, hissing a breath through his teeth when he did. She felt _too damn good_. His strokes were short and deep at this angle, and he bottomed out with every one.

They rocked together, his biotics surging with the rhythm of their hips, sparking down his forearms and across his hands. He reached down and cupped her, pressing his palm firmly against her, the tips of his fingers easily sliding through her slickness to brush against them both where they were joined.

With every pulse of his biotics, Amanda's hips jerked and her breath shortened. With every matching thrust into her, he felt her tightening, the pressure spiraling and building until she finally broke in gorgeous waves of rippling heat around him. Another brush of static from his fingertips, another push of his hips, and he followed her over the edge, pleasure throbbing through him as he poured into her.

Kaidan bent down and pressed a soft, open-mouthed kiss to the wonderfully sensitive patch of skin on the curve of Amanda's neck, his lower lip brushing against the scar below it. She shuddered and arched at the contact - making him groan as she spasmed around him again - and then slowly bent over the banister.

"Hey, Kaidan?" she murmured, sounding as loose and sated as he felt.

"Yeah?" He palmed her hips, savoring the softness of her skin, admiring where they were still connected.

"Welcome home."

She gave a happy sigh and closed her eyes, relaxing against him. From her hips, Kaidan's hands slid up to the small of her back, his thumbs working against her spine before brushing up along its length. He cupped her shoulderblades, marveling at the creaminess of her skin, counting the freckles that dotted her back and connecting them with the tips of his fingers, turning them into constellations and galaxies.

Much too soon, he slipped from her, pressing a gentle kiss to the scar that hugged the base of her neck as he did in apology. He crouched and helped her pull her panties and shorts back up, grazing his thumbs against the curve of her backside as she settled the fabric and then tucked himself back into his own shorts.

"Okay, birthday girl," he said, his thumbs traversing down the cords of her thighs, his fingers working into the muscle, kneading where she felt tense. "We've still got a few hours to kill. How does lunch sound?"

"Lunch," Amanda said as she turned around and sank next to him on the stairs, "sounds wonderful. I seem to have worked up an appetite."

"Good," Kaidan said, leaning forward and catching her lips in a soft kiss. She melted against him, practically purring against his mouth in contentment. He cupped her jaw, tracing it with his fingers before slowly pulling away. "Meet you on the couch in ten."

"Spoilsport," she grumped, but the easy grin on her face gave her away. She stood, moving to the living room, and he watched her go. He doubted he'd ever get tired of that view.

As Amanda settled on the couch, Kaidan stood and moved into the kitchen. He heard the television clicking on and the channels flipping rapidly as he pulled out plates and sandwich fixings and fruit.

He had lunch ready in a handful of minutes. After a cursory sweep to make sure he'd closed the fridge and the cabinets, he grabbed the plates and headed to the living room, passing Amanda her plate as he rounded the back of the couch.

She'd settled on the news, he noticed. There wasn't much of import as they ate - talk of fundraising for a new playground for elcor children, refurbishments to Huerta Memorial Hospital, a scandal involving the volus Councilor and bribes. Minor stories, to be sure, but still news. But then, as they finished and set their plates aside and Amanda curled up against his side, the top of the hour hit, and with it a repeat of the day's breaking story.

"Charles Saracino, formerly of the Terra Firma party," the anchor said, "was officially sworn in to the New York Parliamentary seat this morning after a landslide win in last week's special election.

Kaidan frowned at the screen as the newsfeed cut to a clip of Saracino at a press conference. Something about this felt _wrong_. After his conviction for tax evasion and the ensuing practical dissolution of the Terra Firma party, Saracino had essentially dropped off the map. That he would now have such a wide stage from which to spew his crap made no sense. Politicians like him didn't just rocket back to intergalactic prominence after falling so far from grace.

Kaidan's mind abruptly clicked into work mode. Politicians like Saracino - slicker than a snake oil salesman, just as duplicitous and successful because of it - weren't exactly a dime a dozen, either. Someone had wanted him back. Someone with a big enough pocketbook to make reporters forget the relatively recent scandals and either enough pull or enough blackmail material to make other members of Parliament play nice.

The implications made Kaidan more uneasy than he wanted to admit.

"On this, the day of her birth, I think it's important we take the time to say thank you to Commander Shepard - pardon, Commander _Alenko_, my teleprompter is correcting me." He had the decency to give an abashed laugh before continuing. "The entire galaxy will always be grateful to her for bringing about the end to the Reapers and the sacrifices she paid to save us all. However, it has been argued that in the years since, she has sacrificed the needs of the human race to appease the rest of the galactic community. From this position to which you, the people of New York, have entrusted me, I promise to put an end to that. I promise to serve the people of New York with integrity and I promise, should it ever be in doubt, I will _always_ vote in humanity's interest."

Amanda shut the television off with an agitated flick of her wrist, her finger pressing against the power button on the remote with a sharp finality.

"I don't care _how_ smooth sounds, he's still an asshole," she muttered, dropping the remote onto the couch.

Kaidan rubbed his hand against her arm, giving a distracted hum in agreement. "Did you know about the election?" he asked.

"Vaguely," Amanda answered. "The sitting member in New York's seat died suddenly two weeks ago. There was a bit of a scramble to find suitable candidates for replacement." She frowned. "I don't remember Saracino's name ever being mentioned in conjunction with the election, though. And wasn't he going for the spacer seat last time we saw him?"

"Yeah," Kaidan murmured, still fighting the feeling of wrongness. "He was. But it's been six years since then. Circumstances change."

Amanda raised an eyebrow at that. "But spacers don't," she said. "We had to buy _three _homes because living in _one_ gave me cabin fever."

Kaidan snorted a chuckle. "Conceded. But maybe all three of his homes are in New York?"

"Maybe," she said softly, clearly unsatisfied with his logic. He honestly couldn't blame her; he wasn't satisfied with it himself. "But it's not really for us to worry about," she continued before stretching languidly against his side. "_None_ of _our_ homes are in New York."

"No," Kaidan agreed with a chuckle. "They're not."

Amanda stifled a yawn and stretched. "I think I'm going to take advantage of our perfectly empty, perfectly _quiet_ house and take a nap before we have to get ready for dinner. Would you like to join me?"

Kaidan kissed the top of her head. "As much as I'd love to," he murmured, "I actually have some work I need to see to."

"Suit yourself," Amanda said with a grin, tipping her head back expectantly. Kaidan obediently pressed a kiss against her lips, chuckling and then softly groaning into her mouth when he felt the teasing swipe of the tip of her tongue against his lip.

"Minx," he muttered against her lips.

"You love it," Amanda said with a grin and a wink as she pulled away. Kaidan stood, letting his touch linger as it ran along her arm, drawing out their last point of contact.

"Wouldn't have it any other way," he agreed with a grin of his own.

"Wake me in a couple of hours?" Amanda called after him as he headed toward the office.

"Aye, aye, ma'am," he responded with a sharp salute, laughing and ducking the pillow she tossed in the direction of his head.

In the office, Kaidan sank into the desk chair and called up his omni-tool.

The buzzing had been a communique from Coetzer after all. Kaidan frowned and heaved out a breath. Coetzer wouldn't have risked passing him intel in such a bold manner if it weren't something big, and frankly Kaidan didn't want to deal with a big case now; he wanted to decompress and enjoy being home with his wife and sons. He wanted to not still be heartbroken by the memory of the little girl they had found in the cargo bay of the asari's ship who couldn't have been much older than Shep, her eyes too wide and _knowing_ for a three year old, her hair _too_ wild and her knees _too_ scabby. The magcuffs had been so large and heavy on her too-skinny toddler limbs that she could hardly even lift her hands. When Kaidan had finally managed to hack the lock on those damned cuffs, she had thrown her arms around his neck and clung to him hard enough to almost hurt, her silent trembling so violent he had been able to feel his own teeth vibrating.

Yeah, it would take him awhile yet to get over that one.

Kaidan stared at the subject line of the email, almost willing it to change. He knew it wouldn't. He knew he would open it, that he would never forgive himself if he didn't.

But it was nice to consider being selfish. Just for a moment.

Steeling himself, he finally opened the email. The message was simple and straightforward.

_I've taken this to the brass, and they haven't moved on it. They deemed it "insufficient evidence"._

_Personally, sir, I think that's bullshit._

Attached were several files. Screencaptures of emails, he realized once he opened them. It was an incomplete conversation, but one that was coherent enough. The first was an email to the Office of the SecNav from a redacted contact listing all known Alliance personnel who had been Cerberus operatives.

The second was an email to Charles Saracino's office saying that they'd found the list he requested. The attached document had a nearly complete list of all the official Cerberus donors. While Kaidan didn't care for it, the donations had been legitimate. Some of the donors had been duped, some hadn't. But Saracino's aims had never been too far from Cerberus'. That he would want a list of their donors made sense.

The next email, however, Kaidan wasn't so capable of being charitable about. It was an itemized list of all the ways Amanda had been detrimental to Cerberus's aims and how she thus might be a threat to Saracino's goals should they cross paths in the future.

The fourth seemed innocent enough, but timestamps alone made it suspect – it came from the same source as the list of Cerberus donors and within minutes of the list concerning his wife. It said simply "Do you have everything in place to commemorate your swearing in?" There was a return email this time, which read only "The guest of honor arrives tonight. Can't have a commemoration without her."

The knot that had been tightening in Kaidan's gut turned to a lump of lead. In truth, this _was_ insufficient evidence by Alliance standards. Coetzer hadn't even been able to record the sender on half of the files, and most of them had probably been routed through half a dozen proxies, if this truly were what it looked like.

What the Alliance considered sufficient proof and what proof he needed due to past experience, however, weren't even in the same ballpark. While this was far from conclusive, it definitely bore investigation.

He spared a glance at the chronometer on the desk and then weighed his options. He still had ample time before he needed to wake Amanda. There was no reason to tell her yet, no reason to worry her. Not until he knew more for certain. He settled into the desk chair and opened the extranet.

It was time for a little research.


	3. Chapter 3

It wasn't an op; it wasn't an infiltration. It was just a birthday dinner. _Her_ birthday dinner. But they were going to be in public and away from any sort of Citadel or Spectre provided protection. That always made Kaidan a little twitchy. They were both Spectres, she was an N7, and he was no slouch himself, but there was only so much the two of them could take on alone, especially if that intel from Coetzer was to be taken at face value.

Kaidan could never truly be unarmed, not even in the miniscule chance they took his amp. But _Amanda_ very definitely could be.

And he couldn't live with himself if he allowed that to happen.

Before he could talk himself out of it, he keyed in the combination to the gun safe. They kept only a very small number of firearms in the apartment due to its well-guarded and exclusive location, but he didn't need quantity right now in any event. He needed _size_. He discounted the M77-Paladin - her favorite - immediately. It was too large and too hard to conceal. He needed something more discreet.

There was a prototype she'd picked up recently, a gift from Rosenkov Materials as they were trying to relaunch a line of pistols. It was the smallest pistol Kaidan had seen outside of history books, fitting easily in his palm and not weighing more than a pound or two. He had yet to fire it himself but had been on the range with her when she'd done so. Despite her initial reservations at its size, they both had been impressed by its stopping power and its minor degree of kickback. He picked the gun up and turned it over in his hands, running his fingers over the grip, and then tested the sights out of sheer habit.

It was exactly what he needed.

Kaidan tucked the pistol into the back of his waistband and immediately felt a degree of tension bleed from his shoulders. It was small enough to be concealed by his jacket, but the weight and shape of it was still there, reassuring against the small of his back.

He slipped an extra heatclip into his pocket and then closed the gun safe. He shrugged into his jacket, tugging a bit self-consciously on the hem as he stepped toward the bathroom, wanting to make sure that the fall of the fabric fully disguised the firearm.

The door swished open at his approach, and he took the opportunity to peek inside.

Amanda was leaning over the bathroom counter, the short hem of her dress threatening to ride up her backside, teasing him. He loved that dress; it was a one-sleeved number with a hem that showed a thoroughly unfair amount of leg in a shade of deep blue that contrasted in the best of ways with the warm creaminess of her skin.

He felt the corner of his mouth twitch in appreciation, and a low hum of approval rumbled through his chest.

"You look absolutely breathtaking," he grinned as he leaned against the doorjamb. It was an understatement, but she'd always had that effect on him. She smiled at him in the mirror as she finished applying her lipstick, her eyes glinting playfully.

"You know me," she said with a wink. "I aim to please."

"That you most certainly do," he agreed. Amanda exited the bathroom and headed for the closet, brushing a hand teasingly across his stomach as she passed him.

"Are we going to walk or take a cab?" she called from the closet. "I need to know which shoes I'm wearing."

"I'm thinking a cab," he answered. Taking a cab would be infinitely safer; there was far less time when she would be openly exposed.

"Alright, then, gorgeously ridiculous heels it is." The heels she stepped out in were, indeed, completely ridiculous - in them, she nearly matched his height - but did unspeakable things to her legs. She might have been aiming to please, but she was also playing completely dirty. If the sway to her hips on the way out of the apartment and down to the taxi stand was any indication, however, she was completely aware of it. And, knowing her as he did, she was loving every moment of it.

Devin, it turned out, had indeed picked the flashiest, most in-demand place he could find to make dinner reservations, if not the loudest. For that, at least, Kaidan did have to give him credit.

Estancia was a high-end steakhouse specializing in the genuine article instead of the vat-grown stuff that was far more common. It was on the Strip not far from their apartment and had developed a formidable reputation for playing host to some of the most well-known movers and shakers on the Citadel. It was a large, well-lit building designed to look like a chic version of an old Earth barn, all dark, heavy woods and thick wrought iron embellishments. Entering the building required descending a wide grand staircase to the lower level.

A staircase usually flanked by what felt like half the paparazzi in the galaxy.

Kaidan always hated that part. He had never quite adapted to being in the news, not the way Amanda had. Sure, he'd had the media training seven years ago after the Battle of the Citadel and a refresher course after the Reaper War, but it still didn't come naturally to him. He always had to think about how he held his body, how wide his smile should be – he managed well enough, but it was exhausting.

Amanda, though – she was practically a natural. She already had her Media Face firmly in place as Kaidan turned to help her out of the cab, her eyes bright, her smile perfect and just the right side of flirtatious. It was a good thing, too; flashes were already going off, leaving riotous explosions of color floating in Kaidan's vision. Amanda took his hand as she carefully climbed out, then laced her fingers through his and gave a squeeze. "Relax," she whispered, her smile softening a touch. "It's never as bad as you think."

"That's…debatable," he chuckled, closing the cab door and leading the way to Estancia's staircase. "Remember your birthday last year?"

Amanda winced, her nose scrunching. "Ooo. I'd forgotten about that."

"Yeah," Kaidan sighed. "The next morning, your dad told me I looked like a frightened deer."

"No, he did not," Amanda chastised as they began their descent down the stairs. Amanda leaned in close to him, and the frequency of the flashes intensified. Kaidan tried valiantly to ignore them. He stroked his thumb against the back of her hand, fighting the urge to wrap his arm around her. "I'm pretty sure," she whispered, "what the old man said was 'rabbit'."

He gave an amused sigh at that and lightly tapped her side with his elbow. "Alright. Laugh it up."

"I will, thank you," she said with a smile and a wink as she straightened back up.

As they made their way down the last few steps, the restaurant's heavy double front doors were pulled open for them by the hosts stationed at the bottom. The dull buzz of conversation immediately flooded out and enveloped them, carrying with it the wafting smells of pecan and mesquite and apple.

If there was one thing Kaidan loved unreservedly about Estancia apart from the food, it was the smell. The management rotated the woods on a quarterly basis, so it always smelled a little different every time they came, but it always smelled, somehow, like home. Like holiday cookouts. Like roasting marshmallows on family camping trips and watching the stars.

"Devin said he had a table pit-side," Amanda said as they entered and the doors closed behind them. "You're taller. Can you see him?" The large, limestone-ringed pit was set in the middle of the ground floor and surrounded by smaller tables in fairly large intervals so that the cooking process could be seen by as many guests as possible. Despite that concession, pit-side tables were always in especially high demand.

They didn't have to look long – as Kaidan's gaze swept across the restaurant, he saw Devin rising out of his seat and waving them over. Amanda must have seen him at the same time because she was already making her way across the floor to him. Kaidan followed behind, mindful of the gun still tucked into his belt.

Kaidan watched Devin engulf Amanda in a hug fierce enough her feet lifted off the floor, and he couldn't help but grin. Shepards, he had learned, were an exuberant bunch when they got together. Devin set Amanda back on her feet and then extended a hand to Kaidan. The handshake he offered was, Kaidan imagined, just as forceful as the hug.

"Happy birthday," Kaidan told him. "It's good to see you."

"It's good to see you, too!" Devin responded with a broad smile. "And happy birthday to you," he said to Amanda, pressing a quick kiss to her cheek.

"And to you," she said as they all settled into their seats. Kaidan surreptitiously slid into the seat directly next to the pit wall, a seat he normally would have forfeited to his wife so she could watch the grilling more closely – she said she always went home with new cooking ideas after their visits. Tonight, however, he wanted it for the potential strategic advantage it offered. "I can't believe you got in to this place," Amanda was saying. "We normally have to book weeks in advance at least."

Devin grinned at her over his glass of red wine. "Who says I didn't?"

Amanda slipped the glass from Devin's fingers and took a whiff of the bouquet. She didn't often drink, and less often in public, but she had told Kaidan once that she had always loved the aesthetic of wine and the artistry of pairing the right wine with a meal. "That smells _heavenly_," she sighed before handing it back. "How long ago did you plan this, exactly?"

Devin gave a shrug that didn't even pretend to be sheepish. "It's been my turn to pick our birthday dinner for a year now. Can't have my baby cousin thinking I'm a slouch, now can I."

"I'm only the 'baby' by twenty minutes," Amanda grumped as she picked up her menu. The twinkle in her eye, however, gave her away.

"Baby's still the baby," Devin retorted with a self-satisfied smirk. At times like this, Kaidan always found it hard to think of Devin as the Butcher of Torfan. Devin was a good man who loved his family and was devoted to their happiness. He shouldered as many burdens for those whom he held dear as he could, and still found the time to laugh often enough that he had the beginnings of crows' feet at only 36 years old.

But Torfan had been an outlying incident borne of a desire to avenge what had happened to Amanda on Elysium.

The desire to protect someone you loved, Kaidan mused, could make a man go to extreme lengths if he wasn't careful. He thought again of the gun in his belt, reaching back quickly to make sure it was still disguised by his jacket.

He would just have to make sure he was careful.


	4. Chapter 4

Dinner with Devin went well. There had been conversation for hours and laughter to match. There had been good wine and better food. And at the end of the night, once they had returned home, Kaidan had been able to surprise Amanda with a chocolate cake that had "Happy 34th!" scrawled across the top in blue icing. She had probably known it was coming - he always made a point of acknowledging what she considered her actual age in at least some small way – but she still acted surprised and blew out the candles.

And then smeared frosting across his face.

They made love again that night.

Afterwards, Amanda slept peacefully, curled against his chest. But he had been restless, and the anxiety only mounted as the hours of her birthday wore away. In the end, it had been for naught. Amanda's birthday came and went with no real incident, but that didn't ease Kaidan's concern. It magnified it instead.

The next morning, after they had met John and Hannah for lunch and to pick up the boys, Kaidan set out by himself on a few errands. Chief among those was purchasing a specialty SoB concealment holster that was small enough for Amanda's gun – all of his holsters were built for the current standard size and were far too large.

The several days after that passed quietly, if not calmly for Kaidan. Each day in which there were no incidents out of the ordinary, the knot in his gut tightened. As wrong as it felt to admit it, as much as it made his skin crawl to even think it, he almost wished that whoever it was would go ahead and make their move against Amanda. At least then he would know what they were up against with a degree of certainty.

For now, he would have to settle with taking out his frustrations on simulated opponents. He had hoped the Armax Arena would be perfect for blowing off his steam, and it largely seemed to be doing the trick. The only thing he hated about it so far, in fact, was the Shepard squadmate. She had a competent enough AI, and she looked right. She might have been good enough for anyone who didn't know her, but for him, she was all wrong. Too stiff, too perfectly _heroic_. And definitely, he thought as he watched the Shepard squadmate silently duck out of the way of a geth Colossus' punch, not enough battlefield swearing. Yeah, he was definitely never using the Shepard squadmate again - he watched as she woodenly vaulted over her cover, casually lobbing a grenade behind her before ducking behind another low wall - ever.

He ducked out of cover long enough to get a clear sight on the Colossus so he could overload its shields. As soon as the shields were fried, the Shepard squadmate threw another grenade and the Jack squadmate burst from across the field in a streak of violent blue energy.

Within moments, they had the Colossus - the last enemy of the sim - down. The Shepard and Jack squadmates stared at him unblinkingly, waiting for his input.

Next time, he'd solo.

He declined another round and exited the sim chamber, headed for the locker room. All of this doing nothing was making him antsy. Perhaps another run on the Spectre office would turn up some stone he hadn't already checked underneath.

He hit the showers and then headed for the Presidium, already wracking his brain for any new leads he could explore.

On the Presidium, he didn't even bother heading for the main thoroughfare – most stores were still running a sale in conjunction with celebrating Amanda's birthday, and the thick throngs of tourists would have made the main elevators nearly impassable. Instead, he made use of his Spectre privileges to access the restricted passageways. He headed for the service elevators, continuing to mentally catalogue failed leads and trying to brainstorm new ones, but everything felt like a dead end. To say it was frustrating was an understatement.

He expected the service elevator to be all but abandoned at this hour, but instead he saw the last person he would have thought he'd run into: his wife.

She looked like something out of one of his teenage fantasies – a white button-up blouse and a hip- and thigh-hugging black pencil skirt that made her legs look like they went on for days, and a pair of black heels he loved for what they did to her calves.

She was absorbed in her omni-tool, but she happened to look up and catch sight of him as he drew near, her face lighting with a broad smile he couldn't help but return.

"What brings you to this neck of the woods, stranger?" Amanda asked as he approached.

He stopped next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and leaning in for a quick kiss. "I was going to run by the Spectre offices and check on something." She raised her eyebrow at him. "A case I'm working on," he said before she could ask. He didn't want her to know. Not yet. Not until he had more to go on. "What about you?"

"I was trying to avoid the madhouse at the main elevator – everybody wanting pictures and to shake my hand and talk to me – I appreciate it, you know that, but I just don't have the time today. I'm on my way to see the Council," she said with a sigh. "I've been _summoned_."

"You sound completely thrilled," Kaidan deadpanned, fighting a grin.

"Oh, I _am_," she said, sarcasm practically dripping from her voice. "You remember the last case I worked not long before AJ was born?"

Kaidan frowned, scouring his memory. "It was the one on Korlus, wasn't it?"

Amanda made an affirmative hum and pulled up another file on her omni-tool, quickly flicking through to whatever pertinent data she'd been seeking. "The one with the batarian who used his legitimate ship scrapping business as a front to deal in red sand laced with stuff so bad that hundreds of kids died."

"Oh yeah," Kaidan murmured. "That case was pretty brutal, but you were only the supervisory field agent."

"Right, because I was seven months pregnant. But because the dealer died in custody before we made it back to the Citadel, there was an inquiry. An inquiry that is apparently still unsettled. And _because_ I was the supervisory field agent, they require my input." She sighed and frowned at her omni-tool. "I'm just trying to review the files in case they ask me something completely asinine. I didn't remember this case being this complicated."

The elevator swished open, and they entered together, Kaidan turning to press the buttons for both of their floors while Amanda continued studying the files on her omni-tool. She looked up once the doors closed, reaching for her call button, and stopping short when she noticed it was already lit.

"Thank you," she said, popping up on her toes to give him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Of course," he responded with a grin, brushing a hand gently down her back.

They spent the short ride in companionable silence until the elevator glided to a stop. Amanda smiled at him, giving him a wink before turning her attention back to her omni-tool and moving toward the doors. Kaidan settled back into himself and happened to glance up as he did so.

It was the wrong floor.

He reached out and snatched at Amanda's wrist, the gentle tug back quickly turning into a yank as he spotted a grenade rolling toward the open elevator door. In one fluid motion, Kaidan slammed Amanda against the elevator's railing and turned his back to the door, sheltering her with his body. His barrier flared over them both just before all hell broke loose.

The grenade detonated in the doorway, sending shrapnel flying at his barrier like buckshot and making the elevator shudder roughly beneath their feet. His ears were still ringing from the blast as he checked over his shoulder.

A single man dressed in black fatigues and a black ski mask stood in the doorway, gun drawn and aimed. Kaidan's heart hammered in his throat, but he paid it no mind. Without hesitation, he flung his arm backwards, sending a singularity spinning towards the gunman. Kaidan whirled on his heel, already reaching for the pistol at the small of his back, but Amanda was faster, one of her hands pressed flat to his back so he'd be aware of her position while she unholstered the pistol with the other.

Amanda shifted around him, trying to get a sight on their assailant. As soon as she did, the gunman fired, the shot going wild as he tried to aim in zero-g. Immediately, there was an answering gunshot from the pistol behind him as Amanda returned fire.

The back of the gunman's head exploded, gobbets of blood and bone and brain matter floating in lazy chunks around him in some sort of perverse ballet before Kaidan let the singularity fizzle out. The gunman's limp body fell to the floor.

"You okay?" Kaidan murmured, still watching the door in case the first man in hadn't been the last.

"Fine," was the clipped response from behind him and just to his left. "Shaken, but fine." Kaidan counted out thirty seconds of complete and utter silence before Amanda spoke again. "Think it's clear?"

"Think so," he answered. "I'm going to check the body."

"Got your six," Amanda responded. She moved around him as he knelt by the body, using the elevator as cover to check down the hallway. "Confirmed clear. I'm going to call Mom, tell her to get the boys out of here." Her voice was tight, but Kaidan didn't acknowledge it. He didn't need to. She moved down the hallway a couple of meters, and he began to examine the body.

He started with gently pulling up the ski mask. Sallow skin, thin lips, Roman nose, wide-set eyes. Young looking. Someone he'd never seen before. A quick pat-down revealed no form of ID and nothing on his person apart from the gun and his omni-tool. It was a long shot, since the data access was tied to the user's brain function, but he still might be able to strip pertinent information from it.

He had just taken the omni-tool from the gunman's wrist and was starting to remotely sync it to his own when Amanda came back.

"Dad's going to go get the boys and go to ground. I told Mom not to tell me where." Tension Kaidan hadn't wanted to acknowledge he'd been carrying whooshed out of him in a quick sigh.

"Good," he said, calling up the program that would allow him to begin manually overriding the brainwave protocols on the gunman's omni-tool. He paused for a moment to glance up and give his wife a reassuring smile. "Your dad will keep them safe."

"I know," she said, her voice cracking slightly. "If two children aren't safe with the Director of Naval Intelligence, then what hope do Marines have, right?" She breathed in deep and sharp through her nose, blew it out roughly, and then put on what Kaidan had come to think of as her Command Face. All traces of a worried mother were gone, replaced only with the Marine facade. "What have you found?"

"So far," he answered, turning his attention back to his own omni-tool, "only this omni-tool. Which I'm hoping I'll be able to hack. Give me just a second-" Lines of code flew by so quickly it was almost a blur. Kaidan recognized several firewalls and was able to hack them easily. The safeguards he'd been expecting to find were completely absent.

He frowned as he copied the omni-tool's data onto a quarantined portion of his own omni-tool.

"What's wrong?" Amanda asked.

"There weren't any brainwave safeguards on his omni-tool." Kaidan ran his fingers over the spare omni-tool as he thought, examining it. "I mean, it's a pretty high-end one, same manufacturer as mine and only a model or two behind."

"Maybe it was previously used?"

"Maybe," Kaidan agreed as he strapped the omni-tool back on the gunman's wrist. "But for now, we need to report this incident to the Council."

Amanda nodded. "Agreed. I'll get the process started while you go through that data." She leaned against the wall and called up her omni-tool. Kaidan ignored her conversation and opened the quarantined portion of his omni-tool to begin sorting through the information he'd pulled.

He didn't want to admit it, but he was impressed at the level of encryption of the data itself, especially considering how easy the firewalls had been to bypass. Nothing he wasn't able to crack with the Spectre programs he had installed, but it took several anxious minutes, which he spent signaling Amanda to stall for more time.

Eventually, he had a name - Roland Danworth, an email account and access to it, and through that, confirmation of a payment of a large sum of money to Danworth's personal bank account. He also found programs for hacking into the main Citadel security cameras and evidence that Danworth had hacked into the power network in the immediate vicinity, which Kaidan assumed was how he had manipulated the elevator. The only real problem Kaidan ran into was that he kept hitting dead ends every time he tried to trace the money to a source.

He didn't have the time to spare to figure this one out on his own. He called up his email account, rerouted it through several proxy servers, and then sent an email he never thought he'd have to send: he asked Liara for help. He gave no real context, simply saying that he needed the information tied to the money ASAP.

He knew he'd owe her. He also knew it would be more than worth it.

"The Council's sending another Spectre," Amanda said as she ended her call.

"That doesn't surprise me," Kaidan said. "Standard operating procedure."

Amanda nodded. "Yeah."

Kaidan had learned many things about Amanda over the last seven years: how she took her coffee, how much she hated mornings, the sparkle in her eye when she was selling bullshit, the subtle tilt of her eyebrows when something was on her mind. The way the air around her felt different, _charged_ almost, when she worried over a problem. And as he moved to lean next to her against the wall, he couldn't help but notice the weight of it building around them.

He said nothing, letting her come to him in her own time - she always had and he knew she always would - but he did lean into her, briefly brushing a kiss against the top of her hair. It was both a greeting and a reassurance, and he refused to let the moment pass without it.

Finally, she lifted the pistol and turned it in her palms. Kaidan had almost forgotten she had it. He braced himself for the questions he knew were coming.

"Why did you have this?" she asked, a frown creasing her brow and hurt lacing her voice. "Did you know?"

He licked his lips, weighing his words. "I had a suspicion," he finally admitted. "I got passed some intel that made me think there might be a move against you."

The line between Amanda's eyebrows deepened as she lifted her head to look up at him. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Kaidan winced at the reproach. "It wasn't anything concrete, and I didn't want to worry you. I know you can handle yourself, and I know assassination attempts are pretty old hat to you by now. But if I _can_ protect you, if I _can _save you the frustration of dealing with it, I want to."

Amanda let her head thunk back against the wall, then closed her eyes and sighed, her face softening. "I appreciate that, but please, next time, tell me."

"I will," he said, taking her hand and running his thumb over her knuckles. "I promise."

She gave him a small, tired-looking grin and gently rubbed her thumb against the side of his finger. "What's the sit rep?"

Truthfully, he didn't want to tell her. He didn't want to give the thought any more credence than it already had. But the dead gunman with an untraceable payment couldn't really be classed as coincidence. Not anymore.

Kaidan swallowed and gently squeezed Amanda's fingers. "It's looking like Cerberus," he finally said. Amanda's eyes widened and her eyebrows shot up. "I don't know if that's the name they're still going by," Kaidan continued, "but all signs so far have indicated that it's still the same people. The same donors, at least."

"Which means probably the same people in power," Amanda finished for him. Kaidan's chest clenched at how defeated, how _weary_, she sounded. She had done so much, _sacrificed _so much, she never should have had reason to sound that way again.

Yet, she did.

"Yeah," he answered, his voice rough enough that the acknowledgement barely scraped out of his throat. "Right now, it's looking like Saracino's the head of the operation, but I don't know for sure. I've just needed enough evidence to give me even the smallest justification to go after him without the Council hamstringing me. I'm hoping our friend here," he tilted his chin in the direction of Danworth's body, "will give that to me."

They stood in silence for a moment, simply existing in the same space, each of them drawing comfort from the nearness of the other. Eventually, Kaidan bumped his hip playfully against Amanda's side and nodded to the pistol she still held loosely in her other hand. "How'd you know it was there?"

She smiled sheepishly and handed it back to him, watching as he slipped it back into the holster. "When you turned around, your shirt lifted just a little, and I saw what I thought was the edge of a holster. I thought maybe, if I was lucky, I mean I know you don't really need one-" she trailed off as realization dawned over her face. "You were carrying that for me, weren't you." It wasn't a question. It didn't need to be.

"Yeah," he admitted, feeling a flush creeping up the back of his neck. "I was." He reached up and cupped her cheek with one hand, rubbing his thumb against her cheekbone. "I just-" he started, but the words stuck in his throat. He blew out a breath and steeled himself, then started again. "Look," he said, "anybody comes after me, they aren't going to get very far. But you? You're a _hell_ of a soldier, sweetheart, don't get me wrong, but-"

"But take my gun, and there's only so much I can do," she said quietly, her gaze gentle and reassuring. Kaidan opened his mouth to speak again, but Amanda pressed a finger to his lips. "I get it. Thank you."

Just as he kissed her finger, movement at the far end of the hallway caught his eye. Before he had even taken another breath, his barrier had flared and Amanda had taken her pistol back again and dropped into a marksman's crouch close to the wall.

An armored salarian crept toward them in a defensive position, gun drawn and ready but not aimed.

"Jondum?" Amanda called, cautiously standing.

The salarian halted. "Alenko?" he called back.

"Yeah," Amanda answered. "Both of us. It's clear." She turned to Kaidan, handing him the pistol again.

"I take it this is the other Spectre?" he asked as he let his barrier fizzle out.

"Yeah. Hell of a way for you two to meet," she said, sounding bemused. "Jondum was actually a huge help back during the War."

Kaidan gave her a reassuring smile. "Then remind me to shake his hand." He was just holstering the pistol when his omni-tool buzzed against his wrist.

Jondum stepped up to Danworth's body, giving it a cursory once over, and then looking over at Kaidan. "Jondum Bau," he said. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise," Kaidan said with a nod. "Kaidan Alenko." His omni-tool buzzed again, and he had to fight a frown of confusion. His incoming vid call alert followed immediately after. "Uh, excuse me. Just for a second."

Kaidan moved a meter or so down the hall to grant himself a semblance of privacy before answering the call. Liara's face immediately filled his holo-screen.

"_Kaidan_," she sighed in obvious relief. "Thank the Goddess."

"Liara?" None of this made any sense. He had expected an email, not a personal call. "What's going on?"

"I sent you two emails, but ignore them," she said. Her voice was frantic, her eyes slightly wild. "Glyph did a little more digging for me and this can't wait. Kaidan, it's Cerberus. It has to be."

"Slow down, and start from the beginning."

"The account you sent me? The money came from New Dawn Pharmaceuticals."

"Weren't they one of Cerberus' front corporations?"

"They were, but they seem to have spent approximately the last two years doing legitimate pharmaceutical research. Further complicating matters, the owner of the account-"

"Danworth?"

Liara arched an eyebrow and her lips went thin. "Is that his name? All you sent me were numbers," she said, bitterness keeping her words clipped and tight. Kaidan promised himself to make it up to her later. "_Danworth_," she continued, "is currently contracted to New Dawn as a systems security technician, so the proof of payment was essentially worthless. But the amount seemed a rather large sum for a systems security technician unless he was remarkably good, or in possession of blackmail material that could do unspeakable, irreparable damage to the company's reputation. Considering he would have had to go through me to get information of that caliber, and I have no record of any interactions with him, I did some further research into New Dawn's accounts. They recently received two rather large donations: one from Charles Saracino, and one from a group calling themselves the William Gray Memorial Fund. Normally, this wouldn't raise any red flags; Gray did pass away due to glioblastoma multiforme - a particularly rare and aggressive form of human brain cancer - which New Dawn has purportedly been researching for the last six months. But William Gray had close ties to Charles Saracino and the Terra Firma party. I have Glyph looking into donations made to the Memorial Fund, but he hasn't uncovered anything out of the ordinary yet. Now tell me what's going on."

Kaidan dragged his hand across the back of his neck, digging his fingers into the tendons, using the gesture to ground himself.

"They're after her, Liara," he admitted. He kept his eyes trained on the floor, refusing to look Liara in the face, not wanting to see the fear there; he had enough fear for the both of them, and shouldering Liara's as well as his own might prove too much to bear. "They somehow got Saracino into Parliament after all these years, and now they're after Amanda."

"Stop them, Kaidan," Liara said, her voice low and fierce, and he found he couldn't help but look up to meet her gaze. Her jaw was set and there was a fire in her eyes he had never seen before. "If you promise me nothing else in this life, you promise me you will stop them."

"I will," he answered. "You know I will."

"Good. I'll contact you when I know more."

The connection winked out. It was thin proof, but it was enough for the Council to grant him investigatory rights. All he needed was to find the person pulling the puppet strings.

And now he knew exactly where to start looking.


	5. Chapter 5

The shuttle touched down in London on an uncommonly bright day, especially for mid-April. Kaidan had been to London only twice: the once in September four years ago when they had assaulted the Catalyst, and again three years ago for the first anniversary celebration and parade, but he'd heard stories. And he'd always heard April in London was supposed to be grey and dreary. And wet. Today was none of those things. Today was bright and warm, the sun reflecting with almost blinding brilliance off the polished copper rooftop of the new Parliament Hall.

After the destruction of Arcturus, Parliament had desperately needed a new center of operations. The government spent two years in itinerant status, convening where they could or using QECs to hold meetings, and even then most of their meetings were only emergency sessions. Eventually, the Parliamentary Representatives came to an agreement that the new building should be on Earth instead of on a space station.

The structure they finally decided on, an expansive and sprawling single-story building designed to be reminiscent of the Basilica of ancient Greece, was built in London just beyond where the Reapers had engaged the teleportation beam. The large field directly in front of Parliament Hall was still pitted and hollow in remembrance of the atrocity committed there, but it was now green and lush, abundant with grasses and wildflowers. Nature always did find a way.

Kaidan didn't have much time to reflect on the beauty of it, however, as he jogged across the shuttlepad to the rooftop entrance. Parliament was in session and if he had any hope of catching Saracino directly and off-guard, it was now.

He was nearly to the heavy metal rooftop door when it swung out violently. A large man dressed in a security guard's uniform stood in the doorway, filling the frame shoulder to shoulder. His hand was poised near his hip, the butt of a large stun gun clearly visible. Kaidan slowed his approach accordingly.

"State your name and business," the guard – Parata, according to the patch over his left breast pocket - said, his voice deep and rumbling.

"Kaidan Alenko, Council Spectre. I'm here on Council business."

Parata frowned at him, the large black tribal tattoo on the side of his face wrinkling as he did so. He raised a hand to his ear and activated an earpiece, never taking his eyes off Kaidan. After a muttered exchange, Parata moved aside with a grunt. "Spectre," he said.

Kaidan nodded his thanks, giving a tight, close-lipped smile. "I'm here for Charles Saracino."

"He's currently in session."

"I know."

Parata cut him a sideways look, still sizing him up. "Do you have a warrant?"

Kaidan fought the urge to sigh. "No."

The guard's lips thinned impossibly farther. "Then I'm afraid I can't help you." They stared at each other for a moment, Parata still eyeing him impassively. "I _can_ take you to his office, though," he finally said, almost too casually.

Kaidan grinned. "I would appreciate it."

Parata didn't say another word, simply turned on his heel and took off through the door and down the staircase. Kaidan followed him, nearly getting lost in the labyrinthine corridors.

When they finally made it to an antique style, heavy oaken door with Saracino's name etched in the brass nameplate, Parata unlocked the door and moved aside. "I wasn't here," he said sharply. "You didn't see me. Good luck, Spectre. This guy's as slippery as an eel." He continued down the hallway without a single look back.

Kaidan slipped inside, closing and locking the door behind himself.

The office was opulent – a small reception area gave way to a large, sunken office proper. The wall facing the reception area was lined floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall with bookshelves that were stuffed to the brim. The partner-style desk, oversized and made entirely of dark wood, faced the door from its position near the far wall, its leather top polished to a near-reflective shine. A wingback chair, clearly Saracino's, sat behind the desk, flanked by a wet bar against the wall on one side and an antique pie safe on the other.

Kaidan really didn't expect to find anything, but he gave the office a cursory sweep anyway. When he found nothing of import, he was thoroughly unsurprised, and he was willing to bet that the same could be said of Saracino's home. Saracino, for all of his flaws, was not a stupid man. And, like any good politician, he only got better at covering his tracks with age.

Which meant the only place any evidence would be found would be on Saracino's person.

Kaidan didn't have to wait as long as he'd expected. He had only just settled against the edge of Saracino's ridiculously oversized desk when the lock on the office door suddenly disengaged and the door swung open.

Saracino had been mid-word when it did, omni-tool raised to his half-open mouth. But he froze as he saw Kaidan - the self-assured cocky smile slipping from his lips just as the blood drained from his face, his eyes widening and his entire body tensing. He looked like he'd seen a ghost.

Kaidan pushed off the desk, never taking his eyes off of Saracino. He advanced steadily, predatorily, until he was close enough to hear the dryness in Saracino's throat as he tried to swallow. Kaidan stood nearly a half foot taller than Saracino, and he used it to his advantage. He loomed over Saracino, boxing him in. Kaidan could see the vein in the side of Saracino's throat practically vibrating, could see his suit shirt fluttering over his thin chest as his heart hammered.

Good.

"A word, Mister Representative," Kaidan snarled, his voice low.

"Of course," Saracino replied with only the barest crack in his voice. "Carol," he said to his omni-tool, "I'll have to call you back. I have a meeting I completely forgot about."

The omni-tool blinked out. Partly as a precaution, Kaidan gingerly reached over and removed the omni-tool from Saracino's wrist. "I suggest," he said, his voice low and menacing, "we move out of the doorway, Mister Representative." He backed up a step, giving Saracino the space to advance into the room.

Saracino took a step forward into the office, and Kaidan could see a tiny flame of bravado flare to life behind Saracino's eyes as he entered his home turf. Saracino cleared his throat and gently pushed the door closed. He tugged at the hem of his suit shirt and then briskly smoothed a hand down the front, clearly trying to restore his composure. "I heard," he said carefully, "about the attack on your wife. Truly there are monsters to be found where we least expect them." Saracino turned away from him and moved toward his desk. Kaidan saw his opportunity and seized it, quickly firing up the tracking protocols on his own omni-tool and syncing them to Saracino's. The task was done before Saracino had even taken his final step. "However," Saracino continued, sitting down in his chair, "I have yet to learn why you're here. Are you and your wife residents of New York?"

"No," Kaidan said.

"Then what may I do for you, Spectre Alenko?" Saracino laid his palms on the arms of his wingback chair, a seemingly benign gesture to make him appear more welcoming. But Kaidan watched as Saracino's right pinky subtly slid off the edge of the chair's arm, most likely reaching for the panic button Kaidan had found - and summarily disabled - in his earlier sweep of the office.

Kaidan folded his arms across his chest and raised an eyebrow. "I have proof that you hired Roland Danworth to kill my wife."

Saracino looked agog. "Me?" he asked, bringing his left hand to his chest. "I assure you I did no such thing. Even if I had committed such a heinous, despicable act, if you actually had the proof you claim, you'd be arresting me, not trying to intimidate me in my own office."

Kaidan said nothing, watching him instead, noticing the barest tension and flex in Saracino's right hand as he brushed the inactive panic button again. Watching the realization dawn across Saracino's face that there would be no help coming for him.

"I can promise you," Kaidan said, advancing toward Saracino's desk, "that Spectres don't require the same amount of proof that C-Sec does." He slammed a hand against one of the wingbacks and used just enough his biotics to be able to spin it around. "I _guarantee_ you," he said through his teeth as he leaned down over Saracino, knowing his eyes were limned in ghostly blue flames and exactly how unholy and terrifying that must look to someone who had likely never dealt with a biotic before, "I have all the proof I need as a Council Spectre to bring you in _right __**now**_."

"So then why haven't you?" Saracino challenged, tilting his chin up in an effort to distract Kaidan from his trembling forearms.

"Because you aren't the one I really want," Kaidan said flatly as he stood. "Not yet." He carefully dropped Saracino's omni-tool in his lap. "Consider this a courtesy call, _Mister Representative_." He turned on his heel and left the office without another word.

Kaidan was already calling up his omni-tool as he moved down the hall away from Saracino's office.

Predictably, Saracino's voice poured into his earpiece almost immediately. He had to remember to thank whoever had coded this particular gem of a tapping program.

"Carol," he was saying, "it was _her husband_. He said he had proof-"

"Did you go through the channels I told you to?" a female voice snapped. Kaidan frowned. She sounded vaguely familiar, but he couldn't quite place her. He called up a trace, watching carefully as the code flew by in an orange blur.

"Yes." Kaidan's blood ran cold when his tracing protocols finally pinged to the location of Saracino's contact. He needed to get back to the Citadel _now_. He moved as quickly as he dared to the front of the Parliamentary offices.

"Then he's bluffing. Stand your ground. Don't give him an inch. Alenko's like a dog with a bone, especially where his wife is concerned. If you give him nothing to gnaw, he _will_ eventually go find it elsewhere. Don't concern yourself with Shepard; I'll deal with her."

The connection terminated, and Kaidan burst out onto Parliament Hall's rooftop, already running for the shuttlepad. He only hoped he wouldn't be too late.


	6. Chapter 6

Saracino's contact had been inside Alliance Command.

Under normal circumstances, he could have pinpointed exactly which office, but this situation was unique. Advanced firewalls in secure Citadel buildings, one of which was Alliance Command, prevented hackers from accessing data without risking exposing themselves in return. Once Kaidan had realized where Saracino's contact was, he'd stopped the trace before risking alerting her to his presence. But that also left him with frustratingly little to go on.

As the shuttle rocketed back to the Citadel, the first thing Kaidan did was place a call to Amanda. The connection hadn't even registered a full wait cycle before she picked up.

"Where are you?" she asked, her voice laced with worry.

"On my way back," he answered, tension thrumming through his jaw and up into the sides of his skull. Floaters were starting to form on the edges of his vision. _He didn't have __**time **__for this_. He pressed a thumb and forefinger to his eyelids and slumped down in the seat so he could lay his head against the seatback. "Where are _you_?"

"I'm at home. What's going on?"

"Is Devin still in?" The thrumming worsened. He could practically feel his pulse trying to drill its way out behind his eyeballs.

"Yeah. His next posting isn't for two more days." A small measure of relief uncoiled in Kaidan's gut, and he blew out a breath.

"Get him to come over. I don't want you alone if it can be helped. It looks like Saracino's superior is Alliance."

"Are you sure?" In anyone else, Kaidan probably would have expected panic. Instead, her voice was like steel. Old habits died hard, it seemed.

"As close as I can be to positive."

"I'll call Devin now. And Major?" she added, her voice softening, almost cracking. Kaidan's chest clenched and his throat grew tight.

"Yes, Commander?" he answered, his voice low enough that he felt it rumble in his chest.

"Come home to me safe."

"Aye, aye, ma'am."

Amanda cut the call after that. Kaidan sat in the quiet, wanting to wait until he felt he could open his eyes without his head splitting open, but knowing he didn't have the time. He mentally counted to twenty-four, breathing in for two counts and out for four, and then opened his eyes.

The floaters were worse, to the point where there were black spots blocking out portions of his vision. _Shit._

He worked his omni-tool into a functional area of his vision and pulled up a list of Alliance personnel named Carol. There weren't many, but there were more than he'd thought there would be. He had found four Carols: Carol Bartholomew, Carol Nemec, Carol Pena, and Carol Wainwright. There were also a handful of Carolines, and two Carolyns.

This was going to get him nowhere fast. He set the list as a background function and opened a voice-only call to Liara's private line. He spent the first three wait cycles begging for her to pick up. She finally did on the fourth.

"What do you need?" she asked, the slur of sleep heavy in her voice.

"I'm sorry to call so late," Kaidan started, his own voice beginning to slur around the edges.

"No, it's fine," Liara said. "Are you alright? Is Amanda?"

"We're fine. For now. Have you had any luck with the William Gray Fund?"

Kaidan heard Liara heave a sigh. "Not yet, no. It's maddening. Where there should be information, there isn't. It's like they've somehow scrubbed themselves from existence."

"I've got a list-"

"Send it. I'll have Glyph crosscheck it immediately." Kaidan fumbled at his omni-tool, calling the list up again and stabbing at what he hoped were the proper buttons on the haptic interface to forward it to Liara. "Alright," she said moments later. "I'll call you back when Glyph is done."

The line went dead, leaving Kaidan alone again with nothing more than the hum of the shuttle engines. Vertigo began to kick in, and with it came the nausea. At this point, medicating was a calculated gamble. He could use his meds and hope the side effects had worn off by the time he reached the Citadel, or he could _not _medicate and hope that the migraine had abated enough by the time he reached the Citadel.

Kaidan reached into a pouch on his belt, his fingers automatically grasping the pill bottle and popping the cap off practically by rote. He felt out half a dose. That was all he would use, despite the sharp stabbing building up around his amp port. If he took a full dose, the chances were too great that he'd still be passed out cold by the time he reached the Citadel. He just needed to take the edge off. He dry swallowed the pills, a matter of necessity rather than choice, and settled into his chair, hoping to nap off the worst of the migraine.

He woke later - a half hour later, according to the chronometer on the shuttle's dash - disoriented and dizzy and with his head still throbbing, though at a much more manageable level. His omni-tool was buzzing frantically against his wrist.

"Alenko," he said as he answered the call.

"Kaidan," Liara's voice rang out from the other end of the line, "I've got it!"

He scrubbed a palm across his eyes, trying to force the grit out. "Got what?"

"The connection! I have it! I can't _believe _I hadn't thought to check the board members' personal lives," she said, her frustration practically palpable. "I was too caught up in their bank accounts. I should have seen this sooner. It was right in front of my face the whole time! It's Caroline Padrillo. She was apparently William Gray's lover."

Kaidan's eyes snapped open, and he could hear his heart hammering in his ears. This was very quickly turning into one of his worst nightmares. "Liara, Caroline Padrillo is the Chief of Naval Operations. I need you to be _absolutely sure_. What do you mean 'apparently'?"

"I mean William Gray was married, but he and his wife, Janice, apparently had a bit of an open relationship. Janice Gray is both the Chief Officer and figurehead of the Memorial Fund. However, Janice never makes a decision in regards to the Fund without first consulting Caroline Padrillo. After realizing that, it was surprisingly simple to find the connection between William and Caroline."

"Let me guess," Kaidan said, feeling bile rise in his throat, "Caroline effectively has final say of where the Fund invests its money."

"From what I can gather, yes. Caroline isn't listed on any board documentation as being involved with the charity in any capacity whatsoever, so her conversations with Janice aren't recorded anywhere. At least not anywhere official. But the few times I can corroborate, Janice didn't seem to go against her wishes."

The Citadel loomed before him. "Thanks, Liara. Can you forward me all the information you have?"

"Done," she said as his omni-tool buzzed. "Good luck, Kaidan." She closed the connection.

Kaidan reached over to the radio on the dash and hailed Flight Control. "Flight Control, this is Spectre Alenko in Alliance shuttle Alpha-November-Charlie 428 requesting clearance to land."

"Alliance shuttle Alpha-November-Charlie 428, you're clear to land at Docking Bay C-12," came the immediate response.

As he drew in to the dock, he was already trying to make sense of it all. The Chief of Naval Operations was trying to assassinate one of the Alliance's most brightly shining stars. It made his head spin.

One of the recent duties imposed upon the Chief of Naval Operations was being the official Alliance liaison for the Spectres; currently he and Amanda were the only human Spectres, but it was a way - on paper at least - for them to balance their occasionally divergent responsibilities to the Alliance and to the Council. The Council could still assign any Spectre they wished to any mission they desired, and the Alliance couldn't stand in the way of that. But the Alliance, as any other race, could now petition the Council to allow Amanda and Kaidan to use their Spectre authority in certain circumstances that might previously have been only Alliance matters. The final decision of whether or not to petition fell on the shoulders of the Chief of Naval Operations.

Korlus had been just such a case, he realized. Most of the kids killed by the tainted red sand had been human. She had sent Amanda to Korlus expecting her to die - either on the planet, or once they'd captured the batarian dealer. He wondered briefly if she'd sent him on the mission after the asari weapons dealer - most of the children his team had found in her hold had been human - with the expectation he wouldn't have walked out of that one, either.

Charles Saracino had gotten one thing right, as much as Kaidan hated to admit it: truly, there were monsters where you least expected them.

Kaidan moved into the inner airlock, waiting impatiently for the decon sweep to buzz its completion. The instant it did, he was moving through the airlock and out into the docking bay. He had to find Admiral Padrillo and stop her.

He raced through the Citadel, ignoring the throbbing behind his eyes. The last thing he had heard the admiral say was that she was going to take care of Amanda. He had no clue where she was now or how to find her. His omni-tool buzzed against his wrist again with a secondary notification from Liara's message.

His omni-tool. It was the answer to everything. He had never scrubbed it after copying Danforth's data. Which meant he still had the program Danforth had used to hack the security cameras. Checking all of the Citadel for Admiral Padrillo would be impossible. But if he could narrow it down to a more centralized location, it would be a snap. He placed a call to her office.

"Office of the Chief of Naval Operations," her secretary chirped.

"This is Kaidan Alenko. Is the Chief in?"

"I'm afraid she isn't, sir. May I take a message?"

"Just tell her it's urgent I speak with her. I'll be waiting for her at the entrance to Shepard Memorial Plaza." He cut the connection before the secretary could ask any questions and then took off for the park at a dead sprint.

Trying to ambush the admiral at the park gave Kaidan only one real advantage, but it was an enormous one: he knew it like he knew the back of his own hand. He could follow even the unofficial paths in his sleep, and he also knew _exactly _where every one of the park's security cameras was.

The park was, thankfully, largely empty as Kaidan blew by the entrance and proceeded to the heart of the park. There were, as always, a handful of runners and a few families enjoying the late afternoon atmosphere, but the park was empty enough that finding a vantage point far enough away from civilians to avoid casualties if things went south, which he expected they might, wouldn't be a problem. All he needed to do now was find a place where he could access all of the cameras.

Which meant he needed to find somewhere near the center of the park. He immediately changed course for the magnolia tree, scanning the surroundings as he ran for anywhere he could hide. The center of the park was simply too open - the benches provided no cover, and the gardenia bushes were nowhere near thick or tall enough to hide behind.

Hiding in the magnolia tree was the only viable option.

He had never learned the floating trick Samara was so fond of, so he was going to have to climb it the old fashioned way. Kaidan kept his speed up, using it to propel him a few inches up the thick, gnarled trunk. The braided bits of trunk gave him perfect hand- and footholds, and the bottom branches were closely spaced and heavy with the thick, waxy leaves and large blooms that would be practically impossible to see through.

Floaters were starting to burst on the edges of his vision as he heaved himself onto the third branch from the bottom and scooted out far enough that he would be practically invisible from below. Once he was settled, he called up his omni-tool and initiated the camera hacking program.

Within minutes Kaidan saw Admiral Padrillo arriving at the entrance to the park and hesitating by the stone wall. He watched her call up her omni-tool and instantly felt his own tingle against his wrist.

He answered it, voice only.

"Major Alenko," Admiral Padrillo said, "I was told you wished to speak with me, and yet you aren't at the meeting location _you _decided upon. I would like for you to explain to me why that is and why you're wasting the time of the Chief of Naval Operations."

"Tactical field decision, ma'am," he responded, using every bit of focus he could spare to ensure there was no slur in his words. "The situation is sensitive, and I had concerns about the meeting being compromised. I've moved locations. I'll send you the coordinates."

"Alenko, that is unacc-"

Kaidan cut the call before she could finish the sentence. He sent her the coordinates for the magnolia tree, careful to adjust the altitude for ground level. He watched her receive the coordinates, her entire body tense with agitation, and then he began to track her progress through the park. She was following only the main paths, not taking any of the well-used side paths that would have been a more direct approach to the magnolia. Which meant she probably wasn't overly familiar with the park itself.

Kaidan moved back toward the base of the branch and made a quick descent down the tree. He jumped the last several feet, and the impact with ground sent pain shooting through his skull all the way to his teeth and turned the floaters into black spots. The center of his vision was practically gone in his right eye and his left wasn't much better: everything was fuzzy and surrounded by auras.

He gritted his teeth and muttered a curse. Judging by where he'd last seen the admiral, she was roughly a hundred meters away. He had to get out of sight and fast. There was a path just to his right, he knew, but he didn't know if he could successfully conceal himself without full use of his vision.

He didn't have a choice but to find out. He ducked down the path and followed it around a gentle curve, and then he counted.

Thirty seconds later, just as he expected, his omni-tool buzzed again. He ignored it and crept back up the path, careful to move slowly and keep his left eye toward the center of the park. The layout of the park was burned in his memory. All he needed was even the smallest hint about where she was and he would have her.

A blunt object dug painfully into the base of his skull.

Kaidan jerked around, his left arm swinging wide in a haymaker. The pistol barked just as his fist connected with a sharp crack. His opponent - fuzzy and limned in light and color - doubled over, and Kaidan felt heat slice across his right collarbone and along the base of his neck. Warmth ran across his skin, first in a trickle and then a small gush. His opponent straightened, and Kaidan flung his left arm out, grasping fingers of pain searing into his brain and spreading from his amp port as he activated his biotics.

The figure crumpled to the ground as gravity distorted around it, the pressure too great to withstand. He heard a woman gasp, fighting the crushing pressure for breath.

"_Alenko_." It was Admiral Padrillo's voice, thin and reedy and full of hate.

The pressure throbbed and built at the base of Kaidan's skull. He couldn't keep this up.

"Admiral Caroline Padrillo," he said, the gravitational field easing as he had to use more of his focus to keep his voice level, "I hereby place you under arrest for the attempted murder of two Council Spectres."

The admiral gave a short, sharp laugh, and he saw her struggle to sit up. "Under whose authority? And with what proof?"

"Council authority," he said as he fired up his omni-tool and called up the medical subroutines by rote. "And trust me, I have all the proof they need." Kaidan didn't give her a chance to retort, using his medic authorizations to override the safeguards on her omni-tool and deliver a devastating shock directly to her brain.

The admiral slumped over, and Kaidan fell to his knees. The bright, sharp pain in his collarbone was starting to grow. He closed his medical subroutines and accessed his phone functions.

"Kaidan?" Amanda answered, her voice tight.

"Hey, sweetheart," he murmured. "I need you to get to the park ASAP. Bring some magcuffs. I got her. I'll send you the coordinates." He heard Amanda blow out a sigh.

"I'll be right there."

"I'll see you soon." He cut the call and sent the coordinates, and then closed his eyes and leaned back against the trunk of the nearest tree to wait, finding solace in the silence.

He wasn't sure how long he sat there, consciousness ebbing and flowing and turning searing pains into dull throbs and back again, but he was brought sharply to awareness by a soft whispering and the agonizingly firm press of a hand to his bullet wound. Before he could even open his eyes, his biotics instinctively flared at the touch, and his stomach pitched as gravity shifted around him. His left arm was already swinging upwards when he registered the careful, gentle stroke of fingers against his cheek and his eyes opened. It didn't do him any good, though; vision in his right eye was still completely blacked out, and there were too many floaters in his left.

"Kaidan," the whispering voice said, firmer and a little louder than before, "it's alright."

It was Amanda. Kaidan closed his eyes again and let out his breath in a whoosh of relief. He pressed his cheek into her fingers. "Hey," he answered, but the word was too long, the single syllable stretched and loose. He felt Amanda's thumb smudge carefully along the line of his lower lip as she shushed him.

"Liara filled me in," she said. "Devin has the admiral. He's going to take her to C-Sec holding for you. We need to get you to a doctor, let them look at you. Can you stand?" She was already working her shoulder under his arm to help him up before he'd even so much as pushed off the ground.

Together, they got him up, and he let her lead him at a slow, hobbling pace through the park, stopping every few meters when the dizziness became too much to handle. Eventually, they made it to the front of the park, where the smell of Engelmann spruce filled his nose and burrowed into his chest.

Home. He really wanted to go _home_.

"I think," he said, "we need a vacation."

"Agreed," Amanda said softly, her thumb brushing against his spine in the barest of touches. He was grateful both for the contact and for how careful she was being with it against his oversensitive skin. "Once we get you cleared, I think it's time to leave the Citadel to its own devices for a while."


	7. Epilogue

Kaidan had always loved Chetwynd this time of year. The weather was cool without being chilly, and the trees were all in full bloom, crowned with thick wreaths of white. The pear trees sat in neat rows at the far side of the orchard where their beauty could be appreciated without being subjected to the smell, but the apple trees practically surrounded the house, their sweet, delicate scent gently wafting in through the open bedroom window.

Kaidan sat cross-legged on his bed, sketchpad in his lap and extra charcoals next to his hip. He glanced up from the drawing that was taking shape to double check the scene. Amanda leaned back against the large cherry wood headboard nursing AJ at her breast; her hair was still mussed from sleep, and AJ's fingers loosely clenched and unclenched against her chest. The pair of them were surrounded by overstuffed pillows, and the plush comforter was pooled across Amanda's thighs.

Amanda opened her eyes and offered him a tired smile, and emotion welled in Kaidan's chest. He slid his fingers over her knee and up her thigh, continuing upwards until he reached the crook of the elbow where she cradled AJ's head. Kaidan's touch was light and gentle as he brushed his thumb across his son's temple and down to the edge of his cheek.

AJ gurgled at the touch and thumped his fist against Amanda's sternum, and Shep let loose a childish snore from his pallet next to the bed, turning fitfully in his sleep as he fought wakefulness. Kaidan grinned and turned back to his sketchpad. His charcoal glided smoothly across the thick stock, soft, graceful curves giving way to sharper details and smudged shading beneath his fingers.

"You might want to get dressed soon," Amanda said as she smoothed a thumb across AJ's knuckles. "Your holocall's in twenty minutes." Kaidan hummed in assent and softened the line of the gauzy curtains along the edge of his paper. The wind gusted gently as he did, blowing those same curtains in with the breeze. It had to have come from the south, as the faint, loamy smell of spruce rode in with it.

It was very definitely good to be home.

But, as much as Kaidan hated to admit it at this precise moment, Amanda was right. Padrillo's trial was going to start soon, and the Council expected him to be ready to stand as a witness. He brushed the edge of his fingertips against the far side of the headboard in his drawing, giving it a more realistic depth, and then set his sketchpad aside. As he carefully stacked his charcoals, he pretended not to notice the feel of Amanda's eyes on him, studying him almost as he'd been studying her. He closed the box and reached over to place it on his nightstand and then finally turned to meet her gaze.

The corner of her mouth ticked up in a small grin of acknowledgement, but then her eyes drifted to his collarbone. He saw her grow somber as she lifted her hand towards him, and he leaned into it without hesitation, letting her fingertips trace his healing wound. It was a bare touch, mindful of the fact that the skin there was still shiny pink and faintly itchy. He remembered doing the same to her in the solitude of her cabin after the Battle of the Citadel, when she had been left with a puckered scar that ran nearly the entire length of her ribcage. He had been so damn terrified; he'd almost lost her, and he would forever have to face the reminder of how close he had come to suffering that fate. He had mapped that scar with his fingers, every twist and turn, every deep ravine and shallow line, until he could have drawn it in his sleep. He had worshiped it with his lips and his tongue because it was a testament that she had _survived_. He knew this wasn't anywhere near the same - the gunshot had been merely a surface wound - but he understood all too well her need for reassurance that he was fine and that it was truly over.

"You got lucky," she murmured, her eyes still fixed on the fresh scar.

"Yeah, I did," Kaidan said as he cupped her knee where it was bent next to him on the bed, letting his fingertips brush against the tender flesh on the inside of her thigh. Her gaze slid to meet his, and he flattened his palm against the inside of her thigh, pointedly adding, "Not the first time it's happened."

He watched her pupils dilate and her cheeks flush the barest pink. He slid his fingers against the soft warmth of her skin, and she tried to bite back a smile. She jostled her knee, just barely, and arched an eyebrow. "As much as I'd like to express my appreciation for the sentiment, Major, I'm preoccupied," she nodded to AJ who was still nursing, though it had grown lazy and his eyes were beginning to droop, "and you're on a deadline."

Kaidan chuckled and leaned forward to press a kiss to Amanda's forehead. "I still keep hoping the galaxy will learn to take care of itself one of these days."

"I'm sure one day it will," Amanda said, and Kaidan's skin tingled as he felt her fingertips trace the line of his jaw. "But today," she continued as she tipped her face up, and Kaidan kissed her temple, her cheek, the corner of her mouth, "is not that day." Amanda's fingers slid into his hair, her fingers curling against his scalp, and their lips met, slow and easy.

Much too soon for Kaidan's liking, Amanda dropped her hand to the side of his neck, her thumb brushing against his pulse, gently guiding him away from her. "I guess I should go," he said, still close enough to her mouth that his lips brushed against hers. He felt the shudder that rolled through her, felt the mattress dip as she shifted her thighs under the blankets, and then he saw the corner of that perfect mouth curve wickedly, heat banking in her eyes that rocketed straight to his own groin.

"You probably should. Wouldn't want the Council holding you in contempt. Again."

Kaidan winced. "Ah, yeah. I really don't feel like paying _that _fine again." He kissed her again, chastely, and then leaned down and brushed the tip of his nose against AJ's cheek. As he climbed out of the bed, he stepped over Shep, bending to rearrange the blankets over him and affectionately smooth his hair.

Getting an Arcturus shower and a quick shave were easy enough, but getting into his blues proved slightly problematic; it might have only been a flesh wound, but his shoulder still hurt like hell if he moved it certain ways, and the movements it required to hook all of the decorative chains and straighten his ribbon bar were squarely in that category. Kaidan pushed through the discomfort, mentally reviewing the evidence both the Alliance and Council had against Admiral Padrillo in an effort to distract himself.

Caroline Padrillo was nothing if not smart and ambitious; it was impossible to rise to the rank of Chief of Naval Operations without being both. As such, the hard evidence itself was relatively thin on the ground. There were really only her direct ties to Saracino - they had interned on several of the same Terra Firma campaigns in high school, and her attempt on his own life. He hadn't recorded the call between Padrillo and Saracino, so the threat to Amanda's life was no more than hearsay, though it would be backed up by testimony from Saracino.

The rest of the case was going to be largely circumstantial: her deep ties to Terra Firma in her youth; her continued connection to influential party members such as Charles Saracino and William Gray despite her disavowal of Terra Firma ideology after joining the Alliance; her connections to the William Gray Fund, their ties to New Dawn Pharmaceuticals, and the fact that Roland Danworth had been armed with a pre-used, military-grade omni-tool.

Kaidan tugged sharply at the hem of his jacket. Danworth's story still ate at him. All evidence seemed to point to Danworth being a comparatively innocent kid caught in a situation he didn't fully understand. He had, indeed, been a systems security tech for New Dawn Pharmaceuticals, and there had been every indication that he had no true idea of the company's questionable past. He had been pulled in by New Dawn's CEO - debatably under indirect orders from Caroline Padrillo - with the promise of a ridiculously large sum of money. Danworth's parents had no real savings; his mother suffered from Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, and the treatments were costly. He had been given nothing more than the omni-tool and instructions to handle the situation. The kid had no real clue what he was doing; from what the investigations had uncovered, he'd never even so much as handled a real gun before let alone fired one. His employers had never expected him to survive. Apparently, neither had he: he had forwarded the payment to his parents before he'd even unleashed the first hacking program on the Citadel's cameras.

There were still gaps in the information that needed to be filled - how Padrillo had begun rebuilding Cerberus, for one. She had high level clearance and little oversight, but most of the records pertaining to Cerberus had been restricted to the SecNav. That realization had led to several more than tense days, but the SecNav had been fully cleared by both the Alliance and the Council of any wrongdoing. But that meant Padrillo had either been lured in from the inside, as it were, or there was someone even higher up the chain that she'd been taking orders from.

Neither thought was desirable, but in the end it didn't matter. When they found whoever it was, Kaidan had every intention of being there to handle it. If his wife didn't beat him to it, that was.

Kaidan left the bathroom and passed through the bedroom. He noticed Amanda laying AJ back in his bassinet. He also noticed her silky nightgown had been set back to rights and was skimming every one of her curves in the best of ways. He stepped behind her, wrapping an arm around her waist and brushing his fingertips against the fullness of her breast as he pressed a kiss to the curve of her neck. She hummed her appreciation, arching her back and pushing her warm breast more firmly into his hand. He groaned against her skin.

"Promise me," he said as he trailed his lips up the side of her throat, "you'll hold that thought until I get back."

"I can promise," she said, her eyes heavy lidded as she turned and looked up at him from under her lashes, "that I will very definitely be waiting for you right here when you're through." She pulled slowly away from him, teasing them both as she let his fingertips trail across her sensitive flesh. She never took her eyes from his as she climbed back up into their bed, heading for what was practically a nest of plush pillows.

Kaidan stalked her up the bed, crawling over her, hemming her in against the mattress. Ignoring the screaming of his shoulder, he held his weight over her on his forearms, pressing the length of his body against her, close enough that he could feel the heat of her body through his blues. Slowly, carefully, he lowered himself until they were close enough they shared breath, their lips achingly close but not quite touching. "I'm very certainly going to hold you to that, Commander," he said, his voice rumbling through his chest.

"I'd be disappointed with any less, Major," she purred, sending heat shooting straight through him to coil in his groin.

Kaidan pushed upwards and off the bed, his lips practically tingling from the unfulfilled promise of contact. Amanda watched him, her tongue darting across her own lips in what he knew was a response to the same sensation. He tugged his jacket back into place, smoothed his palms quickly down the creases in his slacks, and then offered her a salute and what he knew was a cocky grin.

He left the bedroom and headed through the house to the study. He knew this trial wasn't going to be a slam dunk; he just hoped the tribunal would see reason, and quickly.

He had a shore leave to enjoy.


End file.
